Tbilisi, 26 May 2001 (RFE/RL) -- Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze says he will meet on Monday with leaders of yesterday's mutiny by hundreds of national guardsmen. The mutiny ended after Shevardnadze met with the guardsmen at an Interior Ministry base outside Tbilisi and promised them they would not be prosecuted.

The guardsmen seized the base after leaving military exercises.

Reports say they had demanded 14 months of back wages, new uniforms, and decent food and wages.

Shevardnadze said the government must bear moral responsibility for the incident. He said, "in normal conditions this would not have happened." He said the guardsmen had returned to their bases.

Shevardnadze and the leaders of the mutiny will have talks at the State Chancellery in Tbilisi.